Omar Amiralay

Omar Amirali (born 1944) is a Syrian documentary film director and prominent civil society activist. He is noted for the strong political criticism in his films and played a prominent role in the events of the Damascus Spring of 2000.

Related Topics:
1944 - Syria - Film - Civil society - Damascus Spring - 2000

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Amirali studied in Paris before returning to Syria in 1970. He thus had a different artistic formation from the majority of Syrian film-makers, who studied in the Soviet Union or in Eastern Europe.

Related Topics:
Paris - 1970 - Soviet Union

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

His films include a trilogy of documentaries concerning the Asad Dam on the Euphrates. The first, Attempt at the Euphrates Dam (1970), is a tribute to Syria's greatest development project, but the second and third take a more critical approach. Daily Life in a Syrian Village (1976) shows the dam's ambiguous impact on the lives of ordinary people in a nearby village, and portrays their relationship with the authorities, seen as distant and disconnected from them. Amirali revisited the region in 2004 with A Flood in Baath Country, which contains trenchant political criticism (it had the working title Fifteen reasons why I hate the Baath Party).

Related Topics:
Asad Dam - Euphrates - 1970 - 1976 - 2004

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another notable film was There Are So Many Things Still To Say, based on interviews with the Syrian playwright Saadallah Wanus recorded while the latter was dying of cancer. The film juxtaposes Wanus' remarks with scenes from Syria's wars against Israel and the Palestinian Intifada, as the playwright recounts, with some regret for the lost opportunities that resulted, how the Palestinian struggle became a central part of intellectual life for an entire generation.

Related Topics:
Saadallah Wanus - Intifada

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

His other films include a portrait of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, The Man with the Golden Soles, and one of French academic and student of Middle Eastern society Michel Seurat, murdered in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, On a Day of Ordinary Violence.

Related Topics:
Rafiq al-Hariri - Michel Seurat - Beirut - Lebanese Civil War

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2000 Amirali was a signatory to the "Declaration of the 99", a manifesto signed by 99 prominent Syrian intellectuals calling for an end to the state of emergency in force since 1963, the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and the permitting of political parties and independent civil society organisations. This was seen as an expression of the general goals of the Syrian democratic opposition and of the movement known as the Damascus Spring in general. Amirali was a prominent participant in the various debates and petitions that marked the Damascus Spring.

Related Topics:
2000 - State of emergency - 1963

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2005, in the aftermath of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, Amirali signed a declaration by Syrian intellectuals calling for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and an end to the attacks on Syrian workers in that country.

Related Topics:
2005 - Lebanese - Rafiq al-Hariri

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite these activities, Amirali does not consider himself to be involved in politics, but in "civil society".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~